A video of a boy getting whipped and beaten up with lathi is viral on social media. The video is shared with the claim that the person who got thrashed was Dilshad Khan, a resident of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. The viral tweet claimed Dilshad had threatened to abduct a Hindu girl Nisha and throw acid at her. The girl told his brothers about the issue, following which the latter assaulted Dilshad.
A Twitter user named Bhim (मोदी भक्त) shared the video with the same claim in their tweet. The text in Hindi says, “Dilshad Punchar s/o Nasibuddin, district Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, in an unrequited love with Nisha Jat blackmailed the girl repeatedly threatening to abduct her and sometimes threatening to throw acid at her. When the girl informed her brothers about the matter, the brothers and their friends kidnapped Khan Saab instead”.
Verified user Ashish Vyas also tweeted the viral video with a similar claim. The tweet read, “Happy (that) Hindus have started waking up, our sisters and daughters have also started recognizing these Jihadis ❤️. Dilshad Khan s/0 Nasibuddin, district Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, a puncture lad, repeatedly threatened to abduct Hindu girl Nisha and throw acid at her. As soon as the girl told her brothers about the matter..😜
Similarly, users named Uved Muazzam and Munna Yadav also made similar claims in their tweet carrying the viral video.
Fact Check
Alt News did a reverse image search of the frames of the viral video on Google. We found an article on Dainik Bhaskar’s website published on November 5, 2022, which had the video. According to the report, the incident was from Kolar area of Bhopal. On August 29, 2022, some boys beat up a 16-year-old Class 12 student from Bairagarh Chichli. So it is clear that the incident did not take place in Meerut of Uttar Pradesh as per the viral claims. There is no mention of any communal angle in this news.
We found another news report pertaining to this matter, published on the web portal of ‘Patrika’ on November 6, 2022. The report carried the victim’s statement, which mentioned that on the morning of August 29, three boys were fighting outside his school. Two of the boys, Shubham and Abhishek, were students of the school. He did not know the third boy. After school, the victim found a few boys standing outside school accompanied by the third boy. They asked him for Shubham’s address, and he refused. The boys then snatched his bike keys and fled. Later, they contacted the victim and asked him to pick his bike up from a particular location. Upon refusing to entertain them, the boys brought the bike to a place near the school at 2.30 pm and asked the victim to walk along. Then the assailants took the victim to Om Nagar ground and asked him to dial one of victim’s acquaintances, named Amit Shukla. Amit answered the call and said he was not in Bhopal. The assailants then severely beat up the victim with wired whips and sticks.
After the video had gone viral, Madhya Pradesh Police swung into action and started searching for the accused. According to the report, the victim had identified the attackers as Richard, Lucky Malviya, Sandeep and Harshit. Police registered a case against the accused and initiated a search.
Alt News spoke to constable Rishi Tiwari of Kolar Road police station in Bhopal on this issue. He said there was no communal angle to the incident. The victims as well as the attackers were Hindus. Constable Tiwari mentioned that an FIR was registered and the case number was (0921/2022). The name of the complainant was Uday Pratap Yadav and the accused were Lucky Malviya, Sandeep and 2 others. He confirmed that the victim, in this case, was not Dilshad Khan. He added that since the victim was a minor, he was unable to provide the copy of the FIR to Alt News.
We noted that Meerut police, too, had refuted the claims along with the viral video. They also warned of strict action against those who spread misleading information.
सोशल मीडिया पर युवक से मारपीट का वायरल वीडियो का मेरठ पुलिस द्वारा #खण्डनः #UPPolice #MeerutPolice pic.twitter.com/5GYcc1AWfE
— MEERUT POLICE (@meerutpolice) March 13, 2023
To sum it up, social media users shared an old video of a student being thrashed in Kolar, Bhopal, and added a misleading communal angle to it while falsely attributing the incident to Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
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